LOL...I actually went out yesterday and picked up a player before they become non-existant...aldo got Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas on HD-DVD...as if it's not hard enough to find on regular DVD.

But yeah, they never had a chance from the beginning.

Quantum9

02-23-2008, 11:49 PM

I wouldn't say they never had a chance...in fact, for a while, they were winning with Universal's announcement. The fact that they had better visual quality to Blu-Ray, not to mention that HD-DVD players natively upscale DVD movies made HD the better choice in my eyes. However, the combined forces of Sony's money, the PS3, and Spielberg's backing (and what Spielberg says goes, usually, in the film industry), was Blu-Ray's kirifuda, and it paid off.

FinalEVA

02-23-2008, 11:49 PM

HD DVD really didn't have too much of a chance from the beginning. I'm glad the war ended. Despite what some may say, 1080p movies are awesome and I don't really like going back to SD DVD. Warner ended it pretty quickly.

There was the rumored "Ultimate Edition" 360 that was going to be announced at CES with an internal HD DVD drive. I wonder if that will have a BD drive now.

4ng31

02-24-2008, 12:22 AM

I wouldn't say they never had a chance...in fact, for a while, they were winning with Universal's announcement. The fact that they had better visual quality to Blu-Ray, not to mention that HD-DVD players natively upscale DVD movies made HD the better choice in my eyes. However, the combined forces of Sony's money, the PS3, and Spielberg's backing (and what Spielberg says goes, usually, in the film industry), was Blu-Ray's kirifuda, and it paid off.

The only time I ever heard of HD even coming close was with the release of 300...and BluRay still outsold it (at least on Amazon's sales tracking).

Also, the PS3's BluRay player also upscales regular DVD's, so that's not exactly an advantage. And to say it has better video quality really has nothing to do with the format, it's more-so the compression used on each movie (Silent Hill on BR looks like ass).

O, and you forgot Disney and Apple's backing as well.

FinalEVA

02-24-2008, 12:52 AM

Yeah, BD and HD DVD both use the same codecs. BD can do 54 Mbps while HD DVD can do up to 36 Mbps, so theoretically BD should be better. As many said, some of the first encodes of Blu-ray were absolutely terrible.

This format war was alot shorter than the VHS / Beta one, which lasted ten years. Porn was a big factor in that one, but not really a factor in the format war that ended a few days ago because of the internet.

Microsoft has been wanting to push it's movie download service (competing with Apple), so many think MS's support for HD DVD was just to prolong the war.

Quantum9

02-24-2008, 12:19 PM

Microsoft has been wanting to push it's movie download service (competing with Apple), so many think MS's support for HD DVD was just to prolong the war.

I honestly don't think that downloading movies, much less games will even make a dent in the disc-making industry like so many say. Broadband internet is still at a point where it takes several hours to download a movie, and perhaps an entire day for a game (just look at the GT5 demo). Maybe in about 5-6 years or so, but right now the disc wars are just beginning.

What I think is more interesting with this war is what it means for the NEXT-gen systems, which, believe it or not, are only 3 years away. It's pretty much assured now that the Xbox 720 is going to support Blu-ray, and it's also guaranteed that the PS4 will support it (despite the statement that it woudn't have a physical media drive). What about Nintendo? They've never used a medium that they didn't have a hand in (N64 cartridges, GameCube minidiscs, and now Wii's faux DVDs). Does anyone really expect them to go Blu-ray? Heck, I half expect that with the "we can do no wrong" mindset that Nintendo has regained (which previously led them to making said N64 cartridges and the Virtual Boy) that they'd go BACK to cartridge based games...I remember a quote from Miyamoto saying that he feels cartridges are still the best media for a video game. With today's compression technology (the DS cards, believe it or not, have more space than an N64 cart), that might be possible, but still, the games of the future are going to REQUIRE 30-50 GBs of space. That being said, it's never been about specs for Nintendo (which is why the Wii is pathetic in regards to them), but they're raking in money hand over fist with it, what do I know.

FinalEVA

02-24-2008, 02:32 PM

I honestly don't think that downloading movies, much less games will even make a dent in the disc-making industry like so many say. Broadband internet is still at a point where it takes several hours to download a movie, and perhaps an entire day for a game (just look at the GT5 demo). Maybe in about 5-6 years or so, but right now the disc wars are just beginning.

What I think is more interesting with this war is what it means for the NEXT-gen systems, which, believe it or not, are only 3 years away. It's pretty much assured now that the Xbox 720 is going to support Blu-ray, and it's also guaranteed that the PS4 will support it (despite the statement that it woudn't have a physical media drive). What about Nintendo? They've never used a medium that they didn't have a hand in (N64 cartridges, GameCube minidiscs, and now Wii's faux DVDs). Does anyone really expect them to go Blu-ray? Heck, I half expect that with the "we can do no wrong" mindset that Nintendo has regained (which previously led them to making said N64 cartridges and the Virtual Boy) that they'd go BACK to cartridge based games...I remember a quote from Miyamoto saying that he feels cartridges are still the best media for a video game. With today's compression technology (the DS cards, believe it or not, have more space than an N64 cart), that might be possible, but still, the games of the future are going to REQUIRE 30-50 GBs of space. That being said, it's never been about specs for Nintendo (which is why the Wii is pathetic in regards to them), but they're raking in money hand over fist with it, what do I know.

That pretty much sums up what I think. All the Digital Download talks are from people that supported the wrong format. The truth is, we already have it and people are still buying discs.

Although largely criticized, I always thought it was good that the PS3 did have the bigger storage medium. Sony finally brought the PS3 back to life in the market after spending a couple billion and is now selling better, especially in Europe. MS will probably be getting another console out in a couple years as more third parties want more storage.

Nintendo is the strange one. I expect them to either go flash memory or do something like the GC did with the small discs, except using the same technology as Blu-ray. They have been able to carve their success without needing alot of third party support.

Pliskin

02-25-2008, 06:38 AM

I honestly don't think that downloading movies, much less games will even make a dent in the disc-making industry like so many say. Broadband internet is still at a point where it takes several hours to download a movie, and perhaps an entire day for a game (just look at the GT5 demo). Maybe in about 5-6 years or so, but right now the disc wars are just beginning.

The biggest hurdle Downloadable HD is going to have is the ISP's themselves. they can barely handle the current bandwidth of p2p and torrents. A vast VAST new construction project is needed, laying literally thousands of miles of cable. Even then, ISP's are more likely to just put a monthly limit. How many HD movies can you stream if you can only download 40gigs a month?

Leishu

02-25-2008, 09:35 AM

The biggest hurdle Downloadable HD is going to have is the ISP's themselves. they can barely handle the current bandwidth of p2p and torrents. A vast VAST new construction project is needed, laying literally thousands of miles of cable. Even then, ISP's are more likely to just put a monthly limit. How many HD movies can you stream if you can only download 40gigs a month?

We'll have to see how well this new satellite infrastructure works for Japan. If it's a success, it may just be the cost-effective bandwidth alternative that the US has been needing.

Mesoian

02-25-2008, 02:27 PM

We'll have to see how well this new satellite infrastructure works for Japan. If it's a success, it may just be the cost-effective bandwidth alternative that the US has been needing.

That won't stop all the major carriers from charging an arm and a leg for it.

Leishu

02-25-2008, 03:47 PM

That won't stop all the major carriers from charging an arm and a leg for it.

True, true. On the other hand, as the economy globalizes, more alternatives will probably present themselves, as well.

The odds are, of course, that the US's internet infrastructure will remain as underdeveloped and overcharged as its Cel-bands are.

allthatsgeek

02-25-2008, 05:18 PM

[QUOTE=4ng31;2296963]
Also, the PS3's BluRay player also upscales regular DVD's, so that's not exactly an advantage. [QUOTE]

It upscales regular DVD's but in itself is a crappy blu-ray player.

Leishu

02-26-2008, 10:59 AM

Also, the PS3's BluRay player also upscales regular DVD's, so that's not exactly an advantage.

It upscales regular DVD's but in itself is a crappy blu-ray player.

By what rubric is it a crappy Blu-ray player, out of curiosity? I've used mine for Blu-ray but haven't used others. Everything else I've seen, though, has stated quite plainly that PS3 sports shorter loading times, quieter play, and less bugs than others on the market, and, the clincher, actually has better picture. Every source I've seen has said that the PS3 is one of the best Blu-ray players currently available. Period.

Do you have something to back your statement up? I've yet to see a negative review, and I'm far from a Sony fanboy so I very much scoured the net for them before I bought my system.

Basically, I'm saying "put up or withdraw the statement."

Bahzi

02-26-2008, 07:52 PM

By what rubric is it a crappy Blu-ray player, out of curiosity? I've used mine for Blu-ray but haven't used others. Everything else I've seen, though, has stated quite plainly that PS3 sports shorter loading times, quieter play, and less bugs than others on the market, and, the clincher, actually has better picture. Every source I've seen has said that the PS3 is one of the best Blu-ray players currently available. Period.

Do you have something to back your statement up? I've yet to see a negative review, and I'm far from a Sony fanboy so I very much scoured the net for them before I bought my system.

Basically, I'm saying "put up or withdraw the statement."

Going to second that...I've heard nothing but stellar reviews for the PS3's blu-ray playing abilities, and it looks terrific to me. *shrugs*

At any rate, we went out and snagged a $50 xbox 360 HD DVD player today,
I honestly don't give a rats ass if it's a dead media, I found the Heroes HD DVD box set for $25, and a bunch of other cheap (like $10 and under) HD DVDS I wanted at a local game store today, and we got buy 2 get 1 free on them as well. JACKPOT!

Mesoian

02-26-2008, 09:18 PM

Quite, the PS3, at the moment anyway, is one of the better Blu-Ray players on the market. This was more than likely the case because it's sony's friggen proprietary medium (if it wasn't good, how much shit would they catch?). Furthermore, through firmware updates, the PS3 is one of the few Blu-Ray players on the market which can have an internal playback database that's influenced by the internet (patches, DLC for movies, etc).

For the longest time, my major criticism for the PS3 was that it was a brilliant media player, but one hell of a shit gaming console. With any luck, that will no longer be the case by the end of the year.

PS3 vs. 360, whomever grants the ability to playback .mkv files with all features wins the media player contest.

FinalEVA

02-26-2008, 09:53 PM

Quite, the PS3, at the moment anyway, is one of the better Blu-Ray players on the market. This was more than likely the case because it's sony's friggen proprietary medium (if it wasn't good, how much shit would they catch?). Furthermore, through firmware updates, the PS3 is one of the few Blu-Ray players on the market which can have an internal playback database that's influenced by the internet (patches, DLC for movies, etc).

For the longest time, my major criticism for the PS3 was that it was a brilliant media player, but one hell of a shit gaming console. With any luck, that will no longer be the case by the end of the year.

PS3 vs. 360, whomever grants the ability to playback .mkv files with all features wins the media player contest.

Although, it isn't exactly a proprietary format to Sony (unlike Betamax). A big misconception. It's a large member of the Blu-ray Disc Assoc., but they can't singlehandedly reject a single member that wants to join.

As far the PS3 as a games console, I figured it would come around. It was released early. I'm liking the 360 more this year than last year right when the media moves the spotlight to the PS3.

Leishu

02-26-2008, 10:28 PM

Quite, the PS3, at the moment anyway, is one of the better Blu-Ray players on the market. This was more than likely the case because it's sony's friggen proprietary medium (if it wasn't good, how much shit would they catch?). Furthermore, through firmware updates, the PS3 is one of the few Blu-Ray players on the market which can have an internal playback database that's influenced by the internet (patches, DLC for movies, etc).

For the longest time, my major criticism for the PS3 was that it was a brilliant media player, but one hell of a shit gaming console. With any luck, that will no longer be the case by the end of the year.

PS3 vs. 360, whomever grants the ability to playback .mkv files with all features wins the media player contest.

I actually love that my PS3 can play (and does upscale) my AVI files as well, for what it's worth. It's a major advantage to me, and, until I found out about the PS3's ability to do so, was the only reason why I'd kept my DVD player, which I'd specifically kept due to its capability to play Divx, around.

Smuffy

03-01-2008, 04:40 PM

Must be nice to have media sharing :( I had things set up decently with my old pc but since I'm running a new Vista rig I can't locate the PC from my PS3 and every time I try to play a file on my 360 through media center the 360 freezes.... ugh